My first season of competitive pinball
I finally stopped being scared of league play, joined the winter league at Two Plumbers, and finished 2nd in C Division.
I have loved pinball for a long time, but I was always a little scared of playing it competitively. Putting a score on a board next to other people’s, on purpose, felt like a good way to find out I was worse than I thought. So I kept it to myself and just played for fun.
This winter I finally signed up for the league at Two Plumbers in St. Charles, and I’m so glad I did. Here is the thing nobody tells you: it is friendly. Two Plumbers is not a room full of sharks. People want you to do well, they cheer for a good ball, and they will happily explain a rule set you have never seen. I have made a real bunch of friends already.
And competition does something funny to pinball. The same machine you have played a hundred times for fun feels completely different when there are points attached. Suddenly you are thinking about which shot is safe, when to cash out a mode, whether to risk a multiball. It turns a casual game into a little puzzle under pressure, and I found I loved that part even more than I expected.
How it went
I finished the winter season 2nd in C Division with 104 points, which landed me in the top four that qualify. The top of the division was tight:
- Corey Farmer, 106
- Todd Hertzelle, 104
- Sabrina Reitmeyer, 98
- Kyle Douglas, 95
A few of my scores from the final meet (March 11), playing a group on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars Episode I, Labyrinth, and Firepower:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 18,069,100 (won the game)
- Star Wars Episode I, 6,910,560
- Labyrinth, 6,497,410
- Firepower, 45,560
(The full standings live on the league results page.)
The playoff
Qualifying got me into the C Division playoff, which ran in a format I had never seen before and really enjoyed. It opened with a head-to-head round against all the other qualifiers, then a stretch where you play each player one on one, and it finished with one more group head-to-head.
I’ll be honest about how that went. I think I managed something like third on the opening game, and then I lost every single one of my one-on-ones, and I’m pretty sure I came in last in the closing group too. Add it all up and I finished 4th, which in a four-person bracket is, yes, dead last in my division.
And you know what, that’s fine. For a first real go at competition, qualifying second and then getting to play in the bracket at all feels great, and the playoff was a blast even from the very bottom of it. Mostly I’m just happy I stopped being scared of this. I’ll try to be better next season.